Redmen spread the wealth in topping Dracut for 4 in a row

TEWKSBURY -- Two teams headed in opposite directions met at Tewksbury's Doucette Field Saturday afternoon, and the result was somewhat predictable.

The MIAA playoff-bound Tewksbury High Redmen jumped out to a 28-6 halftime lead and went on to clinch the outright Merrimack Valley Conference Division 2 championship with a 35-21 win over Dracut High.

The Redmen, who last week earned their second consecutive berth in the MIAA Division 2 playoffs, simply had too many weapons for the Middies to handle, as Dracut fell to 2-8 overall, 1-7 in MVC play.

Tewksbury got four touchdown runs from three different running backs in the first half alone, as sophomore James Sullivan scored on runs of five and 59 yards, junior Eddie Matovu scored on a 40-yard sweep, and sophomore Tom Casey ran one in from nine yards out. The Redmen piled up 234 rushing yards in the first two quarters, and finished with 322 rushing yards for the game.

Junior quarterback Johnny Aylward completed four of nine passes for 85 yards, hooking up with junior wide receiver Kevin Dick three times for 79 yards and a touchdown.

"We don't have one go-to guy on this team," Johnny Aylward said. "We have five or six guys we can give the ball to on any play and they get the job done. It's awesome."

Tewksbury hit paydirt on only its third offensive play of the game, as Matovu sprinted 40 yards around right end for his ninth touchdown of the season. Dracut responded with a 14-yard pass from Tyler Bassett to Jeff Breen to make it 7-6, but Sullivan answered just two plays later with a 59-yard scoring run.

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Sullivan, who led all rushers with 124 yards on just eight carries, made it 21-6 midway through the second quarter with a five-yard touchdown run, his sixth of the season.

Casey all but closed the door on the Middies with a nine-yard touchdown run with 1:50 to play in the first half. Tewksbury averaged 14.6 yards per carry in the first two quarters, all but putting the game out of reach by halftime.

"The first half was one of our better halves of the season," TMHS coach Brian Aylward said. "We've got a lot of guys who can give us yards. We really don't even keep stats on them. The only stat that counts in the end is whether or not you're going to have a chance to represent your league (in the playoffs), and that's been our thinking from the beginning."

Bassett, the Middies elusive sophomore quarterback, did his best to keep Dracut in the game in the second half, tossing fourth quarter touchdown passes to Breen (from 16 yards out) and Pat Noonan (14 yards) to keep things interesting. But two onside kick attempts ended up in Tewksbury hands (Aylward and Joe Poli recovering) and Sullivan sealed the deal late in the game when he intercepted Bassett deep in Tewksbury territory.

The win was the fourth straight for the Redmen, improving their overall record to 6-4 after a 2-4 start.

"We had a tough start to the season but we didn't sit there and say we coulda, shoulda, woulda," Johnny Aylward said. "We got right back to work and it got us to where we are today."

The win also gives the Redmen a perfect 4-0 record against MVC Division 2 competition, a fact that may have surprised a lot of MVC pundits, but not Brian Aylward.

"I'm not surprised," the elder Aylward said. "I had faith in their work ethic. I know these kids and to be honest with you, we had high expectations for them. We've got some kids who are blessed with some size and some speed, and knowing their work ethic we had some expectations that they were going to be able to contend for a championship."

Tewksbury wraps up the regular season with a Thanksgiving Day tilt at rival Wilmington before taking on Reading High for a second straight year in the Division 2 playoffs. Dracut finishes the season at Methuen on Thanksgiving Day.

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